Living With Ghosts
by lostinthemuggleworld
Summary: Hogwarts AU - Beck is the popular, muggleborn Gryffindor quidditch player and Jade is the pureblood Slytherin. They're an unlikely couple and maybe they shouldn't work but they do and everything seems perfect. That is, until the Second Wizarding War begins and they find themselves thrown into complete and utter turmoil. Or, Beck and Jade as they fall apart and then back together.
1. Prologue

**June, 1997 - Jade**

She woke to the sound of fluttering wings, rustling paper and the snores of her dorm mates. Anyone else might be confused by the sound but it brought a huge smile to Jade's face because she knew exactly what it meant; a message from Beck.

Her eyes landed on the enchanted paper bird the moment she opened them and she extended a hand towards it, inviting it to come to rest in her palm. Once it touched her, it stopped flapping it's wings and slowly began to unfold itself so that she could read the message it held.

'I need to see you. Meet me in the same place as last time?' The note read in Beck's messy scrawl of handwriting.

She climbed out of bed, only pausing to pull on Beck's quidditch jersey before she made her way out of the dorm, through the common room and up the stairs that led up to the main part of the castle.

The air in the castle had a wintry chill to it despite the time of year and Jade hurried through the corridors as fast as she could without making a sound, her bare feet freezing on the flagstone. She didn't light her wand, for fear of being caught by a prefect or teacher out of bed at this time of night. It wasn't hard to find the passageway though, her feet had carried her there countless times and she didn't need to be able to see too well to find it in the darkness.

She reached out to draw the unicorn tapestry to the side, stealing a few steps inside and then letting it drop to fall back in place behind her. She held her wand out in front of her to light the passageway but before she could do so, two warm arms appeared out of the darkness and wrapped around her tightly.

"You made it." Beck whispered, his warm breath tickling her neck as he held her close to him. She wrapped her own arms around his waist, resting her head on his chest and letting out a small noise of contentment.

"Why the desperate need to see me?" She teased, leaning up to press her lips to his lips. Usually they made some sort of plan to meet up, especially since that time that Beck's note had been intercepted by a Slytherin prefect.

Instead of answering, Beck dropped his arms from around her in favour of taking her hand and drawing her further along the passageway. They had been here together enough times for her to know that he was heading towards a small alcove off of the passageway. It was strange that he wasn't answering her and his brisk pace seemed even more unlike him.

"Babe, what-" she started to say but was silenced by Beck's hand covering her mouth.

When they finally made it to the alcove, he removed his hand and his face was apologetic.

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm just worried that the sound will carry through that passageway and we'll be overheard by the wrong person."

"Beck, what the hell is going on?" She demanded, not impressed with the cryptic way he was talking.

"Shh. Just listen to me, okay? Something, something is happening. Something bad. We just had a meeting in the common room and everyone thinks that there's gonna be a war soon. Like, really soon. Sooner than we thought." He spoke softly and quickly, a rare serious tone to his words.

Jade didn't know what to say. Everything had been building for a while, You Know Who's return and the murdering of muggles but it still hadn't felt real, not until this exact moment. Her hands gripped the front of Beck's shirt, hoping that he couldn't feel that her hands were shaking. She was terrified about what was going to happen and he must have been too, from how serious he was acting. He was usually full of smiles, huge friendly ones in the halls and small honest ones when they were alone together.

He wasn't smiling now.

"What else did they say?" She prompted, wanting to know exactly what it was that had sent him running to find her in the middle of the night.

"The professors, they know that it's coming too and they're under a lot of pressure from the parents. They might send us home a few days early."

"They can't do that." She said softly, horror running through her as she realised what this really was. "You're here to say goodbye, aren't you? I'm going to have to go home to my dad and I'm not going to see you and-" Her breath was coming in short gasps and she felt herself on the verge of a panic attack. Not many things could truly upset her but the thought of not seeing Beck again for Merlin knew how long was definitely one of them.

"Hey, hey," Beck murmured, bringing his arms up to close around her again, "this isn't goodbye, alright? I just wanted to tell you what us Gryffindors have been talking about and I want to talk about what we're going to do this summer."

Jade tried to even out her breathing and calm herself down, something that being held closely to Beck in an embrace helped with considerably.

"I have to make sure my parents are safe. Have to get them out of the city, probably. Maybe try and get them to go and stay with our family in Canada or something." His voice sounded a little uneven as he said that and it broke her heart a little. She knew that each day with more news of brutality against muggles worried him and she could only imagine what this reality of a full blown war on the horizon was doing to exacerbate his fears.

"I know, baby. You should make sure they're safe." She agreed in a small voice that she hoped came across as at least a little comforting.

He simply nodded in acknowledgement but his arms tightened around her a little and she could tell that he was really worried about them.

"Once they're safe, I'll come for you and we can figure out what to do. I know a couple of the guys think it will be best to be on the move as much as possible when the war breaks out but maybe until then we could lie low somewhere? I would say at your dad's but we both know how unimpressed he would be with that suggestion." Beck sighed and let out a deep breath, maybe at the fact that they couldn't make a concrete plan yet or maybe he was remembering his last visit to the West household. Her father had insisted that he meet the young man she had been seeing and Jade had finally given in and agreed to invite Beck over for dinner.

It actually hadn't gone that badly and Jade had wondered what she had been so worried about. Until it came out that Beck wasn't a pure blood, wasn't even a half blood for that matter, and the night had gone from pleasant to crashing down in flames in an instant. Jade's dad had screamed at Beck to stay away from his daughter, cursing and yelling that no daughter of his would "be allowed anywhere near him and his filthy mudblood ways ever again".

"I know we've talked about this before but, Jade, it really might be safest for you not to be with me right now." He was right, they had talked about this before and she was far from impressed that he had had the nerve to bring it back up again.

"You know exactly what I think about that," she spat out, her grip on his shirt tightening in fury, "I told you that I never want to hear you say something like that again. I love you and we're going to keep each other safe, no matter what happens."

"I know, I know. I just – love, if anything happened to you because you were involved with someone like me I would never forgive myself."

"Nothing's going to happen to me," she assured him with more confidence than she felt, "Or you. Come and get me from my dad's and we'll figure it out. It's just until September and then we'll be back here and safe again, Dumbledore will make sure of that."

"I'll come and get you, I promise." He replied and Jade didn't doubt for a second that he would follow through.

"I know you will. Now, tell me you love me."

"I love you." He replied fiercely, clearly not interested in making her ask nicely tonight.

And then his lips were on hers and everything else seemed to disappear. Her hands slid up his shirt and wound around his neck to pull him down closer to her, kissing him back with everything she had.

Maybe there was a war coming and everything would get turned upside down but she knew that they would be together and that was all she wanted, all she needed, to be okay.


	2. Silence

June, 1997 – Beck

Beck waited at King's Cross Station until the last Hogwarts student had departed. He sat on the bench outside the station, trunk at his side as he waited patiently for his parents. When he had sent them an owl about coming to pick him up a few days earlier, his mom had mentioned that she might be late because she didn't get her lunch break until 1 o'clock. He had assured her that he was happy to wait, she was a teacher and he knew there wasn't much she could do about it.

So he wasn't too concerned that two hours after the train pulled into the station at 11, that neither of his parents had appeared.

_They had spent the entire train ride wrapped up in each other, hardly speaking. Not in an uncomfortable way but just in a way that allowed them to draw strength from each other. After that night in their passageway, things had only gone from bad to worse – Dumbledore had been killed. And not only that but the entire thing had happened right there at Hogwarts. It didn't feel as safe there anymore, especially without their Headmaster and it threw a spanner in their plans. Beck hadn't even thought what would happen if it wasn't safe to return to Hogwarts next year – where else was there to go?_

"_Beck," Jade had said softly when they weren't far from arriving at the station, "you're still coming to get me, right? Soon." She sounded vulnerable, her voice smaller than usual. _

"_I swear I will. Just as soon as I can." _

Another hour of waiting and Beck started to get worried, a feeling of unease settling heavy in the pit of his stomach. He told himself that it was nothing, that maybe in all of the communication he had accidentally told his parents the wrong day. It was all a bit confusing, the abrupt change of his homecoming due to what had happened with Dumbledore. He had tried to make it sound like no big deal, like more of a blessing to get to start the summer vacation early but he knew that his parents would have been able to tell that something out of the ordinary was going on.

When the taxi pulled up in front of Beck's house, he felt slightly relieved to see that his father's car was in the driveway. That must have been all it was, his parents had simply gotten mixed up about the day and he felt a little ridiculous for having been so worried.

He paid the driver and wandered up the path towards the front door, lugging his trunk behind him. He was halfway there when something made him stop. He wasn't sure what it was exactly that he noticed but his instincts made him freeze. He stood still, trying to figure out what exactly it was that had drawn his notice and set him so on edge. Slowly, it dawned on him that it wasn't so much any one thing that he had noticed but rather an absence – there was a complete absence of noise.

On a normal Tuesday afternoon, Beck's dad would have had the TV on, watching the car racing at near-deafening volume so that late at night you could still hear phantom engine noises echoing through your head. The family dog, Poncho would be barking at something – or more accurately, nothing – and Beck would have to quiet him when he arrived home. If he asked his dad why he didn't put a stop to it the standard answer was that he couldn't hear it, slightly believable, or that 'the blasted dog never listens to me, anyway'.

And if that weren't enough noise, Beck's little sister Katie was always blasting some god-awful pop music from her stereo or gossiping loudly to one of her school friends on the phone. Then there was his mum, cooking with as much enthusiasm as she did everything and crashing the pots and pans together as she searched for things she needed and knocked things over in the process.

So for Beck to find the house completely silent sent a chill through him. It wasn't just strange, it had never happened once in his entire life and it made all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

He stole a few more steps towards the house, more alert now and searching for anything else that might be out of place.

_There_.

One of his mother's potted hydrangeas had been knocked off the edge of the porch and smashed.

And look, _there_.

The window to the study was slightly ajar. Even though these last few weeks had been warmer than usual, it still wasn't warm enough to keep windows open and his father always made sure to keep that window closed in case he left it open and the rain blew in through it to destroy any of his important papers.

Beck pulled his wand out, leaving his trunk where he had first stopped and moved quietly up the steps and onto the front porch. He moved tried the handle and found that the front door swung open easily to reveal the darkened interior of the house.

"Lumos." he whispered, moving inside cautiously. A feeling of dread weighed heavily on his heart as he desperately tried to think of some sort of reasonable explanation about why the house was so silent and seemingly empty of his family.

Everything in him wanted to call out for them, even though there was no sign that they were here at all but something held him back. He didn't know what was going on but he had to prepare for the worst case scenario and right now that meant that he shouldn't just be calling out for anyone just yet. He crept through the house, finding no signs of anyone. His father's car keys were on the small table in the foyer as though he had just gotten home from work. Katie's school bag wasn't dropped haphazardly at the front door like it usually would have been which was really the only comforting part of this whole situation.

The silence was almost deafening and Beck could hear the sound of his own heartbeat pounding as he tried to figure out what he should do. Just as he contemplated going upstairs to check for his family he heard a small noise, something scraping against wood. If the house hadn't been so quiet, he most certainly would have missed and it was so faint that he wasn't completely sure he hadn't been imagining it at first. He held his breath, waiting to hear the noise again and sure enough, it sounded once more. Something wasn't right. In fact, something was very wrong and he was suddenly filled with the strong urge to just get out of the house.

Feeling as though he couldn't leave when he didn't have any information, he picked up the phone to call someone but found that the line was dead. He replaced the receiver back down and hastily retraced his steps back out of the house and into the front yard. He picked up his trunk and made his way down the street, trying to put as much distance between the house and himself as he could.

Beck glanced back at the house just before he turned the corner at the end of his street, wistfully looking at the place he grew up in and wondering where he could go to find out where his family was. He began to rethink his decision to leave, feeling like he was overreacting and that maybe he should have just calmly waited for someone to return and tell him what was going on. Maybe it was as simple as his Gran being in the hospital, or Katie having gotten detention, something simple that had caused them to rush off and forget Beck's homecoming in the chaos.

It was hard not to be paranoid, though, with tensions running so high in the Wizarding World and the return of the Dark Lord. There were some very troubling times facing that part of his life, facing them all really and it was impossible for Beck not to at least entertain the notion that whatever was going on with his family might possibly be linked.

He was proven right as his gaze lingered on his house and all of a sudden, the entire place erupted in flames. All the way down the street, Beck was thrown to the ground with the force of the explosion. A split second after he watched his childhood home be practically turned to dust before his eyes, the tremendous crashing sound of whatever had caused the blast assaulted his ears. If he let out any noise at all as he connected hard with the sidewalk, he was unable to hear it over the ringing in his ears.

Beck stumbled back up to his feet, looking on in horror as his fears were confirmed and a huge dark mark appeared in the sky over the charcoal ruins that had been his family's house only moments ago.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there, staring at the dark mark looming in the sky but eventually his hearing returned and he became aware of the distant sounds of sirens. He knew that the police would have questions for him, questions he couldn't answer and before he could make any real plan he had grabbed onto the handle of his trunk and apparated out of there without another thought.

It was a miracle that he didn't splinch himself in the process but a moment later, Beck found himself standing in the middle of Jade's bedroom. He collapsed onto her bed, hugging a pillow to himself as though that would somehow help him to keep himself together. He tried to think of something else, anything else, and landed on the first time he had been here.

"_And my dad is away on business again so I have to be in the huge house all by myself for the rest of the week,"_ _Jade grumbled, pressing her face against Beck's shoulder unhappily. The last twenty minutes of the train ride back from Hogwarts had been this, her bitterly talking about his dad and the man's apparent lack of care for her. _

_Beck felt terrible for her, even though they had been dating for just over a month he already knew that Jade was more special than any other girl he had ever met and it saddened him to think that her own father didn't seem to be able to appreciate that. "You could always come and stay with me, you know." He offered, maybe meeting the family was a bit too large of a step but the words had slipped out before he had been able to catch them. _

"_No, it's fine. I have to be home to watch the place anyway," she dismissed and it was probably clear from his silence that he was slightly offended because she let out a soft sigh after a moment. "I'm sorry, I would like to. I just really can't and I'm just annoyed that I have to stay there by myself."_

"_Well…there is another option."_

"_Oh, yeah? And what would that be Mister Oliver?" She tended to address him that way when she sceptical of whatever she thought he was going to say, or just if she already had her defensive sarcasm ready to shoot down one of his ideas. _

"_I could stay with you. I mean, if you want." The words hadn't come out quite so elegantly as he had planned but he was proud of himself for actually managing to get them out at all. He really adored Jade but she had a real flair for making him incredibly nervous around her. And not in the way that she seemed to terrify younger students either, it was just that he never wanted to disappoint her or say the wrong thing to the point where he found himself tongue-tied and searching his mind frantically for the right thing to say. Really, he just wanted to impress her and he wanted her to like him because he sure as hell liked her. A lot. _

"_What?" Jade asked, head shooting up from where it had been resting on his shoulder so that she could stare up at him with her wide, blue eyes._

"_Look, I don't have to. It was really just an idea and I—"_

"_No, no. I'd love for you to stay. I just…you really would?" She interrupted him as he tried to take back what he had said and her eyes were boring into his. She looked surprised and Beck thought he saw a flicker of some other emotion appear on her face but it was gone before he could figure out just what it was. _

"_Of course," he replied, nudging her playfully, "you're not exactly awful to hang out with. And it- it would actually be nice to get to spend some more time with you."_

_Jade had smiled at that, leaning up to press her lips to his in a sweet kiss. _

Beck hugged the pillow in his arms more tightly, wishing that Jade would just hurry up and arrive home from the station already. It wasn't like he thought she would be able to help him find any answers or magically solve anything but he knew that he would feel infinitely better once he could see and talk to her. It had only been a few hours since they had said their goodbyes at the train station this morning but it seemed like a lifetime ago to him now and he really wanted to see her.

**A/n:** Hi, lovelies! Thank you so much for taking the time to read and feel free to leave any thoughts or suggestions. I have most of this mapped out in a general way but I am also writing a story for the Bade prompt competition at the moment as well so updates here might be a little slow over the next month.


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